Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men. This includes norms, behaviours, and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy – as well as within the relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies in societies and can change over time.
Gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities that intersect with other social and economic inequalities. Gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors of discrimination, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, age, geographic location, gender identity, and sexual orientation, among others. This is referred to as intersectionality.
Other definitions/things to note:
Gender is not the same as sex. Sex often refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of females, males, and intersex persons (such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs). Gender and sex are related to, but different from, gender identity.
Gender identity refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender – which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth.
Most people have a binary gender identity—male/man/boy or female/woman/girl—whether they are cisgender or transgender. For other people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two options, such as people who are non-binary or genderqueer.
A person’s gender identity usually develops when they are very young. Gender variance in exploring gender expressions and gender roles is an expected part of human development for children and teenagers.